MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

5/9 All-Star potential

Starlin Castro made his Major League debut two years ago Monday and still remembers the phone call he got with the news.

“I remember when the manager called me and told me, ‘you’re going to the big leagues,'” Castro said. “I was happy and like, ‘Oh my God, my family will be proud of me.’ I remember that day like it was yesterday. Now, it’s two years ago.”

And now, Castro is on the All-Star ballot for the second time. He was the Cubs lone representative last year.

“I want to be on the All-Star Game every year,” Castro said. “That’s why every year, I want to start hot so people will vote for me. We’ll see what happens. If I play hard, we’ll see what happens.”

Castro entered Wednesday’s game batting .347, and has reached base safely in 67 of his last 70 games, dating back to Aug. 15. He has more multi-hit games in the National League since 2011 with 71. Since his debut, he has 388 hits, fourth in the Major Leagues.

But this year, Castro also has made eight errors.

“That’s not good for me, because I don’t want to make an error,” he said. “It makes me work harder at defense and keep giving 100 percent in the field.”

Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is third in the Majors with seven errors. And he’s a two-time Gold Glove winner.

“A guy like that, he plays good at shortstop and makes an error and everybody can see it’s not easy,” Castro said. “You don’t want to ever make an error. If it was up to me, I’d never make an error. I work hard and try to never make an error. But you don’t always have control of that. Things happen in the game that you don’t have control of.”

— Carrie Muskat

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1 Comment

As much as I lke Castro as a hitter, at this point in his defensive career he is no All Star. LaHair is no magician at 1B but he trumps Castro as of now for All Star considertion. But if only afforded a lone rep? Dempster, no doubt. The thing is he may not be a Cub at the All Start break.

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